With the October referendum on whether a referendum is held, I can’t help but think that Danielle Smith has gotten everything she could possibly want out of this experience.

She’s successfully dog whistled the worst of this province as they dream of a racist utopia free of immigrants and pronouns, and the rivers run rich with oil so clean you can scoop it out and pour it straight into your Ford F-150.

She’s given the entertainment driven news media a story far more compelling that her multitude of scandals. Why talk about unethical healthcare contract procurement when you can talk about a province separating? There’s been no further concern over her use of the notwithstanding clause because she’s given the media a shiny new topic knowing full well that the referendum is doomed to fail.

While the referendum to hold a referendum continues transpeople have lost their rights, books have been banned, pride flags have been banned, oil companies have received handouts, immigrants have been treated as second class residents of this province, and a two-tier health system has been put into the works. That’s before getting into pipelines and data centres that are wreaking havoc on the province, particularly around Indigenous communities.

Still…all we talk about is the referendum.

Maybe I’m too naive. At the end of the day, I’ve given humanity too much credit. I didn’t believe there was a chance in hell that Donald Trump would become president. I believed Alberta conservatives were incapable of finding a leader worse than Jason Kenney. Maybe I of all people should learn from my mistakes and worry about the outcome of the referendum.

The thing is, if the referendum goes through, Alberta will quickly learn why it’s a bad idea. The tougher conversations start and the province learns like the United Kingdom learned, cutting yourself off from a larger governing body is digging your own grave.

I’d say that after the vote happens and we all know one way or the other it will be an opportunity to revisit the multitude of human rights violations, unethical government violations, and hopefully see the UCP label Danielle Smith a failure on her marquee initiative, but the reality is someone deep in the UCP strategy office has already mapped out the big awful thing that will spare Smith and her government from accountability.

I would have hoped at some point in the past few years the NDP would have done more to hold the UCP accountable. Unfortunately, Nenshi has proven to be Chuck Schummer-esque in his finger wagging approach to opposition. The NDP has done nothing to make themselves electable.

What will happen is that Danielle Smith will fail. The UCP will allow her to run out the last of their worst ideas before voting to replace her as leader. This change will be enough to appease the majority of Alberta and the single party rule of this province will continue with no one showing any interest in undoing the worst things that this government has inflicted on Albertans.

The real Alberta separation should be me from this province, but alas, my family has built a life here.